This Week's Leaders in Not Engaged Yet

Guestbook - Canvas

My fiancé and I would like to use a photo canvas (or something of the like, using one of our engagement photos) for a guestbook at our wedding in August; However, I'm not sure what the most appropriate canvas size would be for the number of guests we are expecting.

We anticipate having a fairly good-sized wedding (200-250 people). What size canvas would you suggest to serve as a guestbook for this number of guests?

I would say a bigger one like poster-sized, or at least two 16x20's. I think that's the size I've seen when people use a matted photo for their guestbook.

One thing to consider though is that with the matted photos, there's a bunch of white space guests can sign. With a canvas photo, you'll want to choose pictures with plenty of negative space so that guest aren't signing directly on you two, especially since you have so many guests. Also consider the color marker you'll use, and make sure it's something that's visible on the entire picture.

It's pretty hard to write on canvas--have you ever tried? You'll need markers instead of pens, and people will have to write big, and people who don't will end up with just a big blob, and there won't be a lot of rooms. Either a large picture or a photo mat to sign, made out of paper, is a better option than canvas.

I've never seen a signed canvas come away looking visually appealing, to me at least. Keep that in mind--will you hang it up if most of the signatures are all clustered on one corner, or if your friend's random date signs it really big compared with everyone else, etc.?

And finally, I'd definitely give a second thought to having people sign a picture directly. Put a few drinks in your guests, and you know someone is going to sign right on your faces, or something of the sort.

I've never seen a signed canvas come away looking visually appealing, to me at least. Keep that in mind--will you hang it up if most of the signatures are all clustered on one corner, or if your friend's random date signs it really big compared with everyone else, etc.?

And finally, I'd definitely give a second thought to having people sign a picture directly. Put a few drinks in your guests, and you know someone is going to sign right on your faces, or something of the sort.

And even if they do sign white space around it, you still can get random stuff. I have friends who have, in the white space around their photo, a connect-the-dot (un-connected) of an, ahem, certain portion of the male anatomy.